This past Tuesday, the nominations for the eighty-second annual Academy Awards were announced and this year, it looks like scifi/fantasy films have taken another step into the mainstream consciousness of both the Academy and movie-goers alike. What’s wonderful to see is that “Avatar” and “District 9” are nominated for “Best Picture”! More on this in a moment, let’s look at how scifi/fantasy films did with Oscar nods: Among the nominations, James Cameron’s “Avatar”, the juggernaut blockbuster, dominated with nine nods, Neill Blomkamp’s “District 9” with four, J. J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” with four nods as well.
Though “Star Trek”s nominations are mainly in technical categories, it’s impressive that “Avatar” and “District 9” were nominated for mainstream awards.
This year also marked a change in how the Academy Awards recognize “Best Picture” with expanding the range of films nominated from the usual five to an impressive ten nominations. The Academy has not recognized this many films in this manner since 1943. This allowed the selection of films to be chosen no matter how much they grossed worldwide, animated or live action, studio or independent, or what genre they are in. This decision was also done in hopes of enticing a larger viewing audience to the awards broadcast.
Here’s a quickie breakdown of sci-fi/ fantasy films in the Oscar nominations this year:
“Avatar”: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Score, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects
“District 9”: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects
“Star Trek”: Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Make-Up, Best Visual Effects
“Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus”: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”: Best Sound Mixing
“Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince”: Best Cinematography
The nominees for “Best Animated feature” which include Neil Gaiman’s 3-D stop-motion film adaptation of his novel “Coraline“, Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox“, Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog“, the Irish-Belgian-French film “The Secret of Kells“, and Pixar’s “Up“.
Another interesting thing to note is that “Up” is only the second animated feature to make the “Best Picture” nominations, after “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991.
Among the nominations for “Best Animated Short” are two fantasy genre jewels, Spanish short “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” and Irish short “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty“. (More on these two later today. Don’t miss it!)
One question I have to ask though is “What about Zack Snyder’s ‘Watchmen’?” It didn’t even get a nod for technical categories… what happened here to exclude “Watchmen”?
The eighty-second annual Academy Awards will be hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin and presented on March 7th on ABC at 8pm ET.
Here’s a complete list of the nominees:
Best picture
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9”
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”
Best actor
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”
Best actress
Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
Best supporting actor
Matt Damon, “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
Best supporting actress
Penelope Cruz, “Nine”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal, “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Best director
James Cameron, “Avatar”
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Lee Daniels, “Precious”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”
Best foreign-language film
“Ajami,” Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow,” Peru
“Un Prophete,” France
“The White Ribbon,” Germany
Best adapted screenplay
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, “District 9”
Nick Hornby, “An Education”
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, “In the Loop”
Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious”
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”
Best original screenplay
Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, “The Messenger”
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “A Serious Man”
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter and Tom McCarthy, “Up”
Best animated feature film
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”
Best art direction
“Avatar”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“The Young Victoria”
Best cinematography
“Avatar”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The White Ribbon”
Best sound mixing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
Best sound editing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Up”
Best original score
“Avatar,” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox,” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker,” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes,” Hans Zimmer
“Up,” Michael Giacchino
Best original song
“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog,” Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog,” Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36,” Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine,” Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart,” Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Best costume design
“Bright Star”
“Coco Before Chanel”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“The Young Victoria”
Best documentary feature
“Burma VJ”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
“Which Way Home”
Best documentary short
“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”
“Music by Prudence”
“Rabbit a la Berlin”
Best film editing
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious”
Best makeup
“Il Divo”
“Star Trek”
“The Young Victoria”
Best animated short film
“French Roast”
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
“Logorama”
“A Matter of Loaf and Death”
Best live-action short film
“The Door”
“Instead of Abracadabra”
“Kavi”
“Miracle Fish”
“The New Tenants”
Best visual effects
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“Star Trek”
[Source] Oscars
